Sunday, 16 June 2013

On the Mat Day 382: Drunk Friends

It's Sunday now and I didn't train today because I had a hangover. It's rare for this to happen. I did, however, train on Friday. My injuries are almost fully healed so training went well. I paired up with Matt for drilling the Barbosa armbars from the mount. It's still hard to maintain contact with the opponent's chest when changing arms. Hip flexibility is so important for jiu-jitsu.

During sparring I tried to mostly just relax and work takedowns and escapes. I got taken down one time after having my back taken during an uchi-mata attempt. I tried to recover with the jiu-jitsu self-defense move where you swing your leg back around their and lift both their legs up but could not get the timing and failed. I would like to practice this more.

Going back to the reason I had a hangover today. I went out with some old UK friends who live over here in Japan. It's been a while since I've been out drinking with them all. During one point of the night, one of them playfully got me in a schoolyard type head lock while he was sitting down. I say playful but it was death grip tight like something a white belt does. I immediately created a frame against his head and elevated his leg to force him to almost topple off the chair. This made him release his grip to stop himself from falling and I escaped. I probably could have done the self-defense escape if he were standing and taken him down then forced him to release by putting pressure from above on his neck but it was a weird angle how he was sitting and had my head trapped. It kind of made me realize that newbies will grab you all kinds of weird shit ways that you don't expect and you have to try to work with what you got. It also made me want to train self-defense more. There should be at least a curriculum at our school that covers and tests these frequently.

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About Me

I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in October 2009 after getting fit using P90X. Ive done a number of martial arts since I was 13 years old; Karate (Wado-Ryu, Shotokan), Aikido, Boxing, Pancrase and Kendo. I started BJJ because I've always had an interest in submission techniques. I am currently a black belt under Shinsuke Fukuzumi. My initial goal for doing BJJ was to become tough and improve my self-defence skills. This has changed quite a bit and I now find myself doing BJJ more for the enjoyment and health aspect. I maintain a steady weight of 73 to 74 kg and sometimes compete under Leve (lightweight).
I try to train 3-4 times a week while balancing a busy full time job and meet the demands of my 3 young kids.
BJJ Lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rickson Gracie > Marcelo Behring > Waldomiro Perez > Roberto Godoi > Marco Barbosa>Shinsuke Fukuzumi